Bloody expensive but it's a Chanel classic so I guess it's worth it. I'm not sure why but sometimes I get headache if I smell a particular fragrance for hours but No. 5 is one of the few fragrances that doesn't cause me to get a headache. Love the fragrance although for me it does wear off quite easily. Quite surprised to see the ratings at only 3+ because No. 5 IS THE BEST SHIT ON EARTH I LOVE IT.

I've always considered No 5 one of the most misrepresented scents in the world. I've never been able to come to terms with it being marketed as a bombshell "sexy" scent dripping with glamor and money.

I'm mostly ambivalent to it and prefer Bois des Iles, Coromandel and No 19 from the Chanel stable, BUT imagine my shock today when I asked my husband what (out of the hundreds in the past year or two) he would say was the nicest fragrance he'd smelt so far, and he said without hesitating, "Chanel No 5". Shocked, because unlike many other fragrances, he'd never made any comment about No 5 before.

Strangely enough, his reason was not that it was overtly sexy or even particularly distinctive; but he specifically liked that while it was pleasant to smell, it doesn't invite comment and is a "polite, classy" scent that allows ME to take center-stage and say who I am, instead of having my fragrance say it for me.

Oh lord... this is the one that makes my stomach hurt just thinking about it... my experience with chanal 5 isnt so good... I remember picking up this bottle and smelling it thinking it was going to be good because marilyn monroe wore it and she was so stunning and glam gurrrl was I WRONG. I got a rush of cheap soapy plastic flowers that you get for tombstones... How can this be popular? It stinks to me like cheap detergent... shouldn't even cost 125 dollars it just isnt worth it.. I sprayed it on my hand and it was just soap... if I wanted soap I would just stick to body wash. Glad I didnt' drop 125 for dial in a bottle.

Sorry, I've really tried to like this, but don't. There is something smell-bad about it, and it's not just the fact that it's an old-lady perfume. There are very old perfumes by Guerlain like L'Heure Bleue that I can still find something to like about. Not Chanel No. 5. Although the ads and commercials are great! I guess they have to be, right, in order to sell it? ;-)

i actually registered on the site just to leave a comment in this thread!! i want to say i absolutely detest chanel no. 5, i say that cos altho im a 31yr old guy i live with my elderly parents and my mom wears it quite often...it makes me feel sick and i literally cant stand being in the room with it!!!

NO CAN DO. I tried, really tried: through all the repulson, aversion and gagging-fighting I had to bear. How patiently I waited wondering when, when, WHEN it finally dries down and becomes THAT perfume everybody raves about. But for a long time it wouldn't and in the end - it didn't. It just doesn't change over time, which I find extremely strange, since old school perfumery was all about multifoldstructure. It is sharp, loud and everything but sophisticated, it smells in a way like old soviet perfumes ( which could have been simply an attempt to replicate it). There's a famous russian actress that wears this kind of perfumes, and (in her own words) one of her male friends once said: "You smell like all the dead women I used to know". I couldn't put this any better. Perhaps in the times when this scent was created it was the most tolerable choice, but nowadays I can't help but thinking: it is exactly the situation of "The Emperor's New Clothes" by H.C.Andersen : the hype, the fear of overthrowing an idol. Since no Brad Pitt - fuelled marketing campaign in the world could persuade me into wearing this, I will get a tiny tester : to put it on when going to a funeral of one of its worshippers, as a tribute.UPDATE:OK, I am upping this from 1 to 4, because I HAVE found a way for it to work for me: it's the parfum extrait in a vintage version (preferrably) or a vintage cologne: they both actually do blossom into a supersoft veil that is more like radiating femininity rather than smelling of perfume. EDP progresses on me from nosehair-curling to vomit-inducing, EDT is like a brainfreeze at the 1st spritz, which fades into nothing very quickly. The parfum concentration is within its first 15-30 minutes post-application like a headrush, so I normally try not to move a lot and be busy with something, so that I don't freak out. Then, 30 mins later, it reaches this light powdery and yet creamy self and is veeeeeeery smooth, silky, soft and i want to nuzzle my wrists all the time ( and when no one's watching, I do! :) ). 1 lippie off for working only in the most expensive extrait concentration and for bordering on headache-inducing, even when applied very lightly ( sweetened aldehydes are notorious for this anyway ). Last but not least - my man hates it. He can totally sign under my original review before the "update" ...:-/

This scent is absolutely repulsive. I was once in an elevator with a woman who wore Ch no.5 and the air was stifling from the perfume. I literally almost threw up. I always know when someone was wearing it whenever I start sneezing or feel like gagging. The smell is way too overpowering and it gives me a migraine. The scent is as putrid as the spray that comes out of a skunk's bottom.

I started wearing No. 5 when I was in my early 20s (so much for it being for old ladies!). I only ever wear one fragrance (as a signature) at any given point in my life and after several years I branched out and used other scents. Many years of Jean Paul Gaultier, a couple of Lancome Tresor and several of Bvlgari Blv Notte. Now I'm back with my first love - No. 5. I don't think I'll ever stray again. I wear it day and night, in jeans or dressed up. Everyone in my life says whenever they smell it they think of me. Oddly enough, I've never known any other women who wear it, so despite it being one of the most popular perfumes in the world I feel that it is uniquely mine. Anyone who thinks it isn't sexy is missing the point of perfume. It's the woman who is sexy, not her fragrance. No. 5 is stylish, soft, warm and incredibly feminine. It makes me want to nuzzle myself ..... And my (much younger!) bf adores it!